Beginning on February 16th a winter storm moved in and dropped approximately 2.5' of snow in our neighborhood!!! It was the first and only big winter storm we've had this year! It was absolutely beautiful with intermittent blizzard-like flurries of snowfall over 4 days! Luckily we didn't have to go anywhere that week, so I tromped around in the powder snow with my camera every day. It was a bit tough to keep my camera dry, but lovely to be out in the falling snow! The landscape had turned to a striking black and white palette!
The North Yuba River 2/16/25
Common Goldeneyes (3 males - 4 females) - Bucephala clangula
To my delight I spotted a group of Common Goldeneye Ducks on the river! This time the females were also present. A few weeks ago, there had only been males. In the near future, when the weather turns to Spring temperatures, these ducks will migrate north to Canada and Alaska to breed. In the meantime, they are busy diving in the river to catch fish, crawdads, aquatic insects, and mollusks!
Osprey - Pandion haliaetus
I was also thrilled to see an Osprey in a tree-top overlooking the river! Our river never freezes, so fish are available in the winter. However, trout seek out the deepest, slowest parts of the river in the winter. Their metabolism slows down significantly and they become lethargic. Rather than search for food, they hang out and wait for aquatic insects to pass by! Midges are the main food for trout in the winter, as they complete their life cycle in winter and are readily available! It's been more than a week since I first saw this Osprey, but it is still here on the river! It must be successfully catching trout!
The sky was filled with thousands of small clumps of falling snow,
in a hushed, muted silence!
Killdeer - Charadrius vociferous
To my COMPLETE surprise, a Killdeer showed up in our neighborhood, the day after the snowstorm ended!!! Such beauty! They are rarely seen in our area, as they prefer short-grass, open fields. I've seen them often in Sierra Valley in the springtime and summer. This adult hung around for about 4 days that were mainly sunny, after the storm. I read up on what they eat and earthworms were part of their menu! So I dug up some of our compost pile and found some earthworms and night crawlers. I carried them down to where the Killdeer was hanging out and left them on the ground! I didn't linger as the Killdeer made it very clear that my presence made him wary. About half an hour later I went to see if the earthworms were still there, and they were gone. Maybe the Killdeer found them, or maybe they just wriggled away into the surrounding brush! I'll never know, but I hope the Killdeer got one of them at least! After several days of sunny weather, we recently got a day of heavy rain and the Killdeer is no longer around. I hope it flew down to lower elevations where it normally lives.
Another interesting fact is that a year ago today, on March 1st, I spotted a Killdeer up off the highway in my neighborhood, after a winter storm! It makes me wonder if it could possibly be the same one that just visited us!
Here's a photo of the one I saw a year ago!
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Pittman Road in the Spenceville Wildlife Area
The Spenceville Wildlife Area
The snow melted quickly in our neighborhood, but I still felt the need to see some foothill greens, so my friends Mike and Patti and I went down to Spenceville for a hike this week! It had been a month since I'd been there, and the oak trees were just starting to leaf out and the grasses were even more lush and vibrant! It looked just like the above photo, that I took a year ago!!!
We hiked a six-mile loop through rolling hills covered with meadows and Blue Oak forests. We also passed several manmade ponds, one of which had a few delightful waterfowl!
Pied-billed Grebe (adult) - Podilymbus podiceps
Pied-billed Grebes are uncommon. "Pied" means having two or more colors. They eat crustaceans, fish, frogs, and aquatic insects. They forage for food underwater, as well as on the surface of ponds and bays. Curiously they also eat a lot of their feathers! Apparently this helps in the formation of pellets that they cast to rid their intestine of undigested material. The Cornell Lab states: "Regular ejection of stomach contents minimizes buildup of gastric parasite population in upper alimentary tract."
To escape predation they dive or sink slowly out of view, or hide underwater with only their eyes and nostrils just above the surface! Together the male and female build their floating platform of a nest out of dead and rotting aquatic plants. Additionally, they share the brooding of eggs and raising of the young. They are fierce defenders of their nesting territory, often attacking other waterfowl from underwater! What interesting, different habits this bird has! I'm always so amazed at how everything has evolved so specifically!
American Wigeon (male - female) - Mareca americana
American Wigeons are quite common throughout California in the Winter. In the Spring, they migrate north to Canada/Alaska to breed. I've seen them several times down in Gray Lodge. The black tip of their bill, as well the dramatically colored feathers on the male's head, make them easy to identify! These dabbling ducks forage on primarily submerged aquatic plants, as well as on upland grasses, clovers, and seeds. American Wigeons swim more than most dabbling ducks, while foraging for submerged plants. They are also very good at stealing food from other ducks, especially diving ducks!
There were Valley Oaks interspersed throughout the Blue Oak woodlands, that hadn't leafed out yet. This particular pair of Valley Oaks had a variety of songbirds in them! We stopped and "bird watched" for a little while and were delighted with what we saw!
Oak Titmouse (adult) - White-breasted Nuthatch (adult) - Western Bluebird (juvenile male!)
Firstly we noticed several Western Bluebirds perching and flying around. I lucked out and got a photo of a downy male juvenile! WOW!!! Secondly, there were at least three or four visible White-breasted Nuthatches searching for insects in the tree trunk crevices! Lastly there were some tiny grey birds hopping around, that we later figured out were Oak Titmice!
In the summer Western Bluebirds are primarily insectivores. In winter they eat fruits and berries, such as juniper, poison oak, wild grapes, and elderberry. They also particularly love to eat mistletoe berries, and will sometimes sleep overnight in a clump of mistletoe to defend their find! They like to live on the edge of open areas, such as meadows or burned areas. They are short-distance migrants, and generally move down slope in winter. Males have brilliant plumage, and females are dully colored in comparison.
We kept hearing loud repeated calls and finally figured out it was the White-breasted Nuthatches! Like the Red-breasted Nuthatches in our area, these little birds climb up and down the trunks and branches of trees, gleaning insects from the surface and crevices.
The Oak Titmouse lives year-round in the oak woodlands of California's coast, central valley, and foothills. Their songs and calls are the "voice and soul of the oak woodlands". The male Oak Titmouse has as up to 12 distinct songs, but usually 3 to 4, in its repertoire. An Oak Titmouse mates for life. During breeding season the male feeds and serenades its mate! The also defend their territory (up to 6 acres) with songs and calls exchanged between males! Their diet consists of insects, acorns, oak catkins, fruit and seeds. They usually live in the same location year round.
Acorn Woodpecker - Yellow-rumped Warbler
Melanerpes formicivorus - Setophaga coronata
We also saw several Acorn Woodpeckers that day. They are one of the dominant species in the foothill oak woodlands. Acorns are the main food they depend upon in winter. They store acorns by drilling holes in dead tree trunks and putting an acorn in each hole! These acorn filled trunks are called "granaries". Granaries have been known to contain up to 50,000 acorns!
We also heard Yellow-rumped Warblers, but never spotted one. These colorful birds spend their winters in warmer climates, and are some of the first warblers to return to our area in the spring. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology states: "Short to long-distance migrants, some western Yellow-rumped Warblers move to the nearby Pacific Coast to spend the winter. Other populations migrate to wintering grounds in Mexico and throughout Central America."
Sandhill Cranes - Antigone canadensis
To our delight we heard and saw hundreds of Sandhill Cranes flying overhead that day! WOW!!! They were heading north from California's Central Valley to their breeding grounds in northeast California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. I just LOVE seeing and hearing them every year! Such amazing beauty!
Woodland Stars - Buttercup - Blue Dicks
Lithophragma heterophyllum - Ranunculus californicus - Dichelostemma capitatum
We also saw a couple of wildflowers in bloom! They were scattered and few, but more will be popping up in the near future!
At the end of our hike, we reluctantly left this beautiful green woodlands to go home, but we'll be back soon!
Come and join me for a talk on Saturday, March 21st about "Animals in Winter". It's a fundraiser for the Camptonville Community Center. Hope to see you there!
I will also post my next blog by Sunday, March 15th.
Check back then to hear my latest Natural History News! Thanks!
